A day in Firenze and a surprise.

We decided on a day trip to Firenze for today.  We all got up and were out the door on schedule to catch the 8:20 AM bus.  Based on experience and our local knowledge, we headed to the Tabaccheria to buy our bus tickets... only to find out that they no longer sell the bus tickets.  The cafe does, but we didn't quite catch the name, but the owner of the Tabaccheria pointed down the street and we knew of a cafe at the end of the triangle.  We went into the shop and she said that we couldn't buy the tickets at this particular cafe, but she named the shop that did sell them, but we didn't ask for directions.  Well, this is an unexpected bump in the road, because our bus leaves in about 15 minutes.

Brian and Sadie stopped in a small shop and although it wasn't the suggested cafe, they did sell bus tickets, so they bought round-trip tickets for everyone, which was a very clever move.

The Duomo.  The massive cathedral in Firenze that kicked off the Renaissance.  Note the tiny people near the top of the dome to gauge the size.

Time for a quick refreshment and some gelato on a roof top that overlooked the square and toward the Duomo.

We stumbled across some art that made from pitchers.

We stopped in several shops, but neither Kelly nor I found anything that we couldn't live without (in our size).

Ciao from David.

And another gelato stop.

The Ponte Vecchio.  I noticed that several of the locks of love had recently been removed from railings on this trip.  I had brought a lock with me on the trip, but I forgot it in the room. :(

Firenze is definitely tourist friendly.  Many of the restaurant signs said in plain English, "light lunch", "quick lunch", "kid's meal", and even "Cheeseburger" and "Hot Dog" like the one below.  

We didn't stop.

It looked like it was going to rain and it was a long day, so we decided to head back to Greve.
Since we already had our return bus tickets in hand, we just walked up to the buses and asked a driver which one went to Greve.  He pointed us to bus #2, which did not say "Greve", but bus #3 said Panzano, which is just past Greve, so we headed to that one.  As we got closer to bus #3, the driver that we spoke to yelled to us that bus #2 went to Greve.

Before I could ask the driver of bus #2 if his bus went to Greve, he yelled, "Greve!".  The first few rows of the bus laughed and I simply said, "Grazie.", scanned my ticket, and got on the bus for a front row seat.

I assumed that everyone was laughing at the fact that everyone that got on the bus before us asked the exact same thing in the last 15 minutes that the bus had been sitting there.  Seconds after sitting down, the bus pulled out.  "That was good timing.", I said to Kelly and she agreed.

As the driver pulled out of the station, he yelled at other drivers, waved at other drivers out his window and yelled, "First one out!" as we entered the streets of Firenze ahead of the other buses.

He was full of life and he spoke decent English.
"Greve! Greve! Greve!", he would randomly yell. "This bus only goes to Greve!"

At each stop that the bus made on it's way out of Firenze, it didn't matter what language the person getting on the bus spoke, the sentence always ended with "Greve?" and then the driver would yell? You guessed it, "Greve! Greve! Greve!  This bus only goes to Greve!"  The bus would laugh and we would continue on.

As we hit the countryside, he began making some calls on his phone and he would continue to yell "Greve! Greve! Greve!" at random times and for no apparent reason other than to get a laugh.

The phone calls continued.  He was either making calls or receiving calls and only taking time for random outbursts, "This bus only goes to Greve!"

It didn't take long to get behind a minivan (yes, a minivan in Italy?) that was driving rather slowly through the twists and the turns of Tuscany.  We would later learn that he was trying to guide the old little Fiat behind him to a particular address.

As we neared Greve, a few riders began to exit the bus via various bus stops.  Although there are "Stop" buttons on the bus to signal the driver to stop at the next stop, the riders don't use them.  They simply walk to the front of the bus to indicate that they wanted off.

As mentioned above, a young woman moved to the front of the bus to get off at the next stop.  As the bus driver looked to his right to acknowledge her, his phone rang on his left.  As he leaned over to his left to pick up his phone and answer it, we came around a corner to find the minivan pretty much stopped in the middle of the road and the little Fiat crawling into the driveway that he was trying to find.  A few people on the bus yelled something similar to "AAAAHHHH!!!!!" at the same time as the bus barreled down on the Fiat that was creeping off of the road and into the driveway.

The driver hit the breaks hard, I don't know how the girl held on and prevented herself from flying into the windshield, and the Fiat?  It was rather abruptly helped into the driveway in the form of a very rapid tailspin as it was launched off of the road.

Of course, the bus was barely harmed and everyone in the bus was ok.  The Fiat was now even smaller, which I wouldn't think is possible, but the driver was ok as well.

No police were called, a short conversation took place, and after less than 15 minutes of sitting on the side of the road in Tuscany, we were on our way.

"No problem" said the driver as he pulled away.

The next rider that wanted to get off the bus wearily made his way to the front of the bus, built a very wide stance, and securely grabbed on to a few anchor points as the rest of the bus chuckled at his preparation.

We didn't feel that it was appropriate to Facebook that we got in a car accident in Italy, because that would only cause unnecessary worries back home.

Do we need some food and wine to settle our nerves?  No, we just have a need for food and wine.  Nozzole La Forra, one of my favorites.

We stopped at Nerbone where I had my trippa during my last visit to Italy and I ordered it again.  I sensed agreement from the server when I ordered it and it was better than last time.  During the meal, I told our server that I had it two years ago and it was even better this time and he said that they did, in fact, make it a little differently now.  He said that they moved away from Tuscan style and he likes it more as well.

Do take note that all of the pictures of Kelly's food have a bite out of them already.  I can't get the camera out before she is already eating it!

A church at the end of the triangle in Greve.

If you are ever confused about why Italy has economic issues.  It may be due to the government not being able to collect taxes or that the store owners appear to prefer siestas over working in their store.  Whatever it is, the following store front sign should help clear this all up, so you will know exactly when they are open for business, so you can make your purchases.

If you are use to Mexico and not being able to drink the water, this is the ONLY water that I have ever seen in Italy that was not drinkable.  It was a drain on the side of a street.

Time for bed.  Tomorrow is a wine tour day!

Go to 6/27/13